THE great omentum is a thin membranous bag, quilted as it were into
little pockets which are filled with fat; the whole suspended from the
stomach and the transverse colon, and overhanging the intestines like an
apron. A smaller and more delicate omentum is stretched between the stomach
and the liver. And other still smaller omenta and epiploic appendages,
all containing deposits of fat, occupy various crevices among the abdominal
viscera.

Through these omenta arteries ramify, which, when there is a superfluity
of fatty material in the blood, deposit it in these convenient places,
from which it may as readily be absorbed again in time of want. From their
close relation to the lacteals, the mesentery, and the lymphatics of the
liver, pancreas, and spleen, it is probable that they receive temporary
deposits from all these sources. [p.123] And these deposits they
hold subject at all times to the demands of the liver, the great purveyor
for the body; for this purpose sending all their veins to the portal vein
which carries to the liver its supplies.

That the omentum has other secondary uses Swedenborg explains; as protecting
the viscera from changes of temperature, and distilling an oily vapor to
lubricate the surfaces of the viscera, which are perpetually in motion
over one another. But its chief use is this, of gathering in the superfluous
elements of the nutrition of the body, which otherwise must be cast out;
and then, in time of need, furnishing freely from its stores whatever is
wanted. The omenta, and also the other smaller reservoirs of fat, all share
in this use.

In the liver itself the surplus of sugar, or of starch which had been
converted into sugar, is reduced to a form of starch called glycogen, and
is stored for use as it is wanted. In the omentum fatty elements are similarly
stored, and both [p.124] deposits are reserves which can be drawn upon
at any time for the uses of the body.

In the chapter on the saliva it was shown that the change from starch
to soluble sugar consists in the chemical combination of a little more
water with the starch; and that in the application to the heavens this
corresponds to the reception by new spirits of the knowledge that opens
to them the way to heaven. So, in the reverse of the process, the reducing
the sugar again to starch is equivalent to saying, "Wait a little; the
place for you will be ready presently; be content and wait patiently without
thinking of particular uses in heaven, until the Lord calls you." The fat
deposited in the omentum is similarly reduced from the active state of
an emulsion to a passive, waiting state, which would represent a return
from more active spiritual to quiet, natural states. Therefore Swedenborg
speaks of the omenta as representing exterior and interior natural good.

As this function of the liver and the omentum is a permanent one, it
seems possible that spirits [p. 125] are frequently detained in such quiet
states
for a while, perhaps until they can join friends who come later from the
earth, or until the occasion for their full cooperation with angels is
fully come.

Unless specially instructed, we should not know that there could be
in the spiritual world quiet resting-places for good spirits, where they
may live happily until their final homes are prepared for them. But John
says, --

"I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word
of God, and for the testimony which they held; and they cried with a loud
voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge
and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?' And white robes
were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they
should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and
their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled."
(REV. vi. 9, 10, 11.)

These souls, Swedenborg says, were good spirits, [p. 126] "who were
hated, reproached, and rejected by the evil on account of their life according
to the truths of the Word, and their acknowledgment of the Lord's Divine
Human, and were guarded by the Lord lest they should be led away. . . .
As they were under the altar it is manifest that they were guarded by the
Lord; for all who have lived any life of charity are guarded by the Lord
lest they should be hurt by the evil; and after a last judgment when the
evil have been removed, they are released from the guards, and are taken
up into heaven. After the last judgment I often saw them sent forth from
the lower earth and transferred into heaven." (A. R. 325.)

"The place where they were kept concealed is called the lower earth,
which is next above the hells, under the world of spirits; and there by
communication with heaven and by conjunction with the Lord they are in
safety. There are many such places; and they live there cheerfully among
themselves and worship the Lord; nor do they know anything about hell.
They who are there are from time to time taken up by the Lord into heaven
after a last judgment; and when they are taken up those who are meant by
the dragon are removed. It has very often been given me to see them taken
up and consociated with the angels in heaven." (A. R. 845.) [p. 127]

Before the Last Judgment there were fictitious heavens which at the
time of the judgment passed away. They who constituted this heaven,--

"were seen upon mountains, hills, and rocks in the spiritual world,
and hence they fancied themselves to be in heaven; but they who thus constituted
this heaven, inasmuch as they were only in an external rnoral life, and
not at the same time in internal spiritual life, were cast down, and then
all those who were reserved by the Lord, and concealed here and there,
for the most part in the lower earth, were raised up and translated into
the same places, that is, upon the mountains, hills, and rocks where the
former heavens had been, and from these a new heaven was formed. They who
had thus been reserved, and were then raised up, were from those in the
world who had lived a life of charity, and were in spiritual affection
for truth. . . . The elevation of such into the places of those who constituted
the former heavens has been often seen by me." (A. E. 391. See also 392.)

"The reason that the evil were so long tolerated upon the high places,
and the good so long detained under heaven, was in order that both might
be fulfilled or completed, that is, that the good might amount to such
a number as to be sufficient [p. 128] to form a new heaven, and also
that the evil might fall down of themselves into hell." (A. E. 397.)

"They who were under the altar received white robes, because those robes
represented the presence of the Lord with the Divine truth around them;
and the Lord by the Divine truth protects His own, for He surrounds them
with a sphere of light from which they have white robes; and when they
are thus encompassed, they can be infested no more by the evil spirits
who before infested them, in consequence of which they were hid by the
Lord. The case is the same also with those who are raised by the Lord into
heaven, who are thus clothed with white robes, which is an indication that
they are in Divine truth, and so in safety." (A. E. 395.)

Very similar things are said of those who were preserved in the safe
places of the lower earth at the time of the first coming of the Lord,
and who were then raised up by Him into the spiritual heaven. (See A. C.
6854, 7090, 8054.)

Such quiet places, where hell is not known, and where the good dwell
cheerfully together, cannot be in the intestines, through which evil is
[p. I29] continually passing, and where painful vastations are always going
on. But the omentum covering the intestines, and the various deposits among
them, are in nearly the same situation relatively to the stomach, and though
very near the evil may not be at all disturbed by them.

The deposits in the liver, also, though so near the evil in the gall-bladder,
are perfectly protected from them, and may well represent a peaceful, gentle
life in waiting for freer opportunities.

Apparently the deposits in the omenta represent spirits like those carried
by the way of the mesentery; and the deposits in the liver other spirits
like those carried in the portal vein.

The province of the liver cannot strictly be regarded as in "the lower
earth," since it is above the plane of the stomach. But Swedenborg's expression
is, that those who are reserved are "in great part," or "mostly" (plerique)
in the lower earth; which implies that they are partly elsewhere.

The great omentum I understand to be "the fat [p. 130] covering the
intestines" in the Jewish sacrifices; and the smaller omentum, "the fat
upon the liver"; of which last, Swedenborg says that it corresponds to
a nobler, more interior good than the other, because it is connected with
a nobler organ. (A. C. 10,031.)

In an individual man the omenta must correspond to a memory of natural
and spiritual good which is reserved for times of temptation and want.